


Tokyo, 23 January 2025

by hauntedjaeger (saellys)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Spitefic, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 16:33:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1905975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saellys/pseuds/hauntedjaeger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every night since Pitfall, at least a few people have thrown a party. Mako Mori’s twentieth birthday, though, that’s going to put all other parties to shame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tokyo, 23 January 2025

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically a "Discrete Structures" deleted scene, but it works okay on its own too. 
> 
> Set in the canon timeline where Mako was born in 2005, not 2003.

Tokyo, 23 January, 2025

“Okay Vanessa,” Tendo says, leaning back in a chair in Tokyo’s long-darkened LOCCENT, “your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to serve as the PPDC’s agent in Operation Furisodeshon. This is covert ops, and you’re the only person in this ‘Dome who can get the job done.”

There are footsteps in the corridor and Raleigh holds up a hand, but through the open door they see Marshal Hansen, taking Max outside. As they all relax, Tendo continues, “Your resources are as follows: one pile of cash bigger than anything I’ve seen since before prison, and one long-ass shopping list. Once you have obtained all of the listed items, you will rendezvous with our contact at the safehouse, by which I mean meet an eBay seller in McDonald’s. When the package is secure, return to base.”

Vanessa fires off a salute. “Commander, I accept.”

“Thank you _so_ much,” says Ranger Becket. He hands her a wad of bills, and Tendo was right about the conspicuous amount--how did the man earn this from five years of coastal wall construction? With a pang, Vanessa realizes it’s probably, in part, Yancy’s pension payout.

In any case, her first stop is the nearest foreign exchange counter. Then the shops. A maneki-neko; some candy; the latest installment of a manga Vanessa has never heard of, with the katakana written on the list as well as the phonetic pronunciation so she can ask for it if she has to.

Someone recognizes her in the bookstore--for her modeling work, she realizes with relief, not for standing beside her husband on the Shatterdome helipad yesterday morning as the Tokyo press took picture after picture.

“H&M,” they say, smiling, and Vanessa says yes, smiling, and they wish each other a good day, and Vanessa keeps smiling all the way down the sidewalk into the convenience store that has a printed photo waiting for her. Third trimester, long day, no makeup--still got it.

Under the red and yellow lit sign, Vanessa ignores the insistent rumbling of her stomach, and the fact that the fries smell better than they have any right to smell. She’s scant minutes away from noodles and hot tea in the mess hall. The end is in sight.

A tiny woman with slate grey hair finds her. (Vanessa is easy to find in most circumstances, and would bet half the remaining supply of yen that Tendo’s description of her to the seller was five words or less.) The woman holds out a narrow white box. Vanessa peeks, just to be sure, and the woman says, “There is a letter of authenticity inside. And a picture.”

Vanessa wonders who authenticates such things, and whether there is enough of a market for items distantly associated with Jaeger pilots to justify letters and photographs. And maybe there’s not for other Jaeger pilots. But after Pitfall, the market for anything at all associated with Mako Mori, be it blue hair dye or engineering careers, must be booming.

Vanessa opens her purse. “The buyer already paid,” the woman says. Vanessa haltingly returns her bow, and doesn’t ask how much.

Back in the ‘Dome, Becket cracks the lid and draws a breath. “You’re sure on this?” Tendo says, offering Vanessa a mug of tea. “That was a big chunk of your retirement, man.”

“It’s the real thing,” Ranger Becket says, with an assurance that likely comes from having seen it in the Drift. “Thank you,” he tells Vanessa again, and hugs her. Even working around the baby bump, he’s good at hugs.

Every night since Pitfall, at least a few people have thrown a party. Mako Mori’s twentieth birthday, though, that’s going to put all other parties to shame. Alison and the various ground crews get to work in the mess hall, and there are rumors of an inadvisable number of pyrotechnics. All of that is as covert as Vanessa’s ops, though, and in order to keep Ranger Mori from walking in before it’s ready, Ranger Becket sends her hunting.

For their parts in facilitating all of this, Vanessa and Tendo get to watch from the hangar scaffolding as Mako, arms full of the trinkets Vanessa just bought, follows the clues to a particular Jaeger bay. Raleigh tails her. Under the stenciled insignia of Coyote Tango, Mako finds a four-by-six print of herself, age sixteen, Stacker Pentecost beside her, arm around her shoulders, the day she graduated from the Jaeger academy. It’s a different shot than the one Mako already owns, or the one that was among the Marshal’s personal effects. They’re looking not at the camera, but at each other, caught in the midst of conversation. Marshal Hansen had to dig for it, but he’s not the kind of person who gets rid of anything that meaningful.

Beneath it is the white box.

The picture inside the box is of a Mori Masao sword, once owned by a collector. The sword was damaged beyond repair by Onibaba’s attack on Tokyo. The omamori was salvaged. The letter of authenticity lists every previous owner.

If there was any doubt, there isn’t once Mako sees it, takes it from the box, presses it to her chest. The omamori was tied by her mother.

They’re too far away to hear what Raleigh says, or what Mako says back. But Vanessa has a few guesses, going by the way Mako throws her arms around Raleigh and lets him pick her up off the deck. When her feet touch again, they kiss for a long time.

“Gross!” Tendo snorts. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go hug my wife. Good work today, Agent Gottlieb.”

“You too,” Vanessa says, looking anywhere but at Coyote Tango’s bay.

Hermann is fresh from the shower when she returns to their quarters. “There you are,” he says, toweling his hair. “I thought we’d go to the party, and then… what’s wrong?”

Vanessa realizes she’s a hair away from crying. She takes a deep breath. “Can I have a footrub?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I AM NOT JAPANESE, so if I messed something up here, please tell me so I can fix it.


End file.
